The expression of anger while driving – The role of personality and self-consciousness in a sample of Chinese drivers

Abstract

Driving anger among Chinese drivers is common leading to aggressive and risky driving behaviours and potentially increasing involvement in road collisions. This study adopted an online survey to explore the relationship between personality, self-consciousness and driving anger expression. 559 participants completed a questionnaire consisting of the Driving Anger Scale (14-item DAS), the short version of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory (15 item DAX), the Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI), and the Self-Consciousness Scale (SCS). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis yielded a reliable and valid three-factor structure of the Chinese 15 item DAX, labelled as “Adaptive Expression”, “Verbal Expression” and “Physical and Vehicle Expression”. Physical and Vehicle expression of anger was reported more by males and by experienced drivers compared to females and novice drivers. Traffic offenders showed more inclination towards exhibiting verbal anger expression than non-traffic offenders. In terms of dispositional traits, Humility-Honesty had a negative effect on both verbal expression and physical and vehicle expression. However, private self-consciousness was related to an increase in verbal expression and physical and vehicle expression. Importantly, Humility-Honesty and private self-consciousness moderated the relationship between trait driving anger and non-adaptive anger expressions in opposite ways. The findings could provide some support for the development of strategies to mitigate driving anger in China.